Problem:
I now cannot get NetBSD to "newfs" the ST1480N drive that I installed.
Since the last email that I sent out asking for help, I have made some
advancements, including successfully running the disklabel program.

    This all stemmed from finding a jumper that, once
removed, allowed the ST1480N to be both seen (in that NetBSD
assigned it to sd1), and then have its capacity information delivered
to the kernel.  The jumper had something to do with the motor
spinning.  If it was on, the motor would not spin up, and the disk
would only return its name info, which would cause NetBSD to
assign the drive to sd1.  When the jumper was off, NetBSD assigned
it do sd1, but this time also created/configured /dev/rsd1c (which
was the source of the error that I was getting before when trying
to run disklabel on sd1).  disklabel could then run on the drive.

With this jumper off, two new areas open up, but not completely:
Area #1: A generic NetBSD 1.5 installation, running on a Rodime
drive mapped to sd0, will now allow me to disklabel the Seagate
ST1480N.

As an aside, I ran into a problem that I saw in NetBSD mailing
lists before: disklabel complained about the "c" partition being
open, and therefore resizing it wouldn't be allowed.  I got
around this problem by running disklabel from SYS_INST.

However, now I can't get "newfs" to run.  Any time it is run, newfs
begins normally, but after the status message
"super-block backups (for fsck-b #) at:"
I get the error message: "write-error: 80  wtfs: Input/Output error"

I've also been able to use SYS_INST to disklabel the ST1480N
disk, and install the miniroot.fs upon it.  However, when the
miniroot install program attempts to run newfs, it stops
with the same error as above.

The following are the important parts of several disklabels
that I have tried.  I can post the entire disklabel if it would be
helpful:
sectors/track:  62 or 63 or 64
tracks/cyl      : 9
sectors/cyl     : 558 or 567 or 576
cylinders       : 1476 or 1456

Seagate web site specs state the following info:
     cylinders (user) = 1476, heads = 9, avg. sectors per track = 62,
     sectors per drive = 823608.

In a Sparc NetBSD disktab found on wuarchive.wustl.edu,
I found the following entry:
Seagate ST1480N:\
        :ty#winchester:ns#64:nt#9:nc#1456:

Ian Beeby, who is running HP-UX, sent me entries from
his  disktab, including this one for the st1480n
seagate_st1480n_noreserve:\
        :No swap or boot:ns#31:nt#9:nc#1511:\
        :s0#421569:b0#8192:f0#1024:\
        :se#512:rm#4412:
Modifying this allowed me to run both disklabel and
newfs on my PC running NetBSD, where I changed
the ns from 31 to 62, and nc form 1511 to 1476,
and s0#421569 to sa#822492, and so on.  Because
newfs ran on the PC, and I was able to write to this
disk, I know it's not bad.

What I need from anyone: Proof that they
have this drive, or one similar to it, running on
an NetBSD/hp300 platform.  I'll admit that I don't know how
unforgiving NetBSD can be about really bad disklabels.
NetBSD/i386 seemed to deal alright, but hp300 is
choking on something.  If this is something other
than a bad disklabel, I would really like to hear
that.  If anybody has a disklabel entry for the st1480n
running on an NetBSD/hp300 platform, please send it.
I can make the modifications to make the a, b, and
c partitions the way I want.  It might just be that I don't have
the right idea about what the b/s, s/t, t/c s/c, and total cylinders
should
be.  All the ideas that I have been using have been gleaned
from the very little that I can find on my own.

Thank you,
Sageev